Cheers & Jeers

Cape and Islands District Attorney Michael O'Keefe made a big mistake when he intervened in a case involving a disgraced businessman who runs Joe's Lobster Mart in Sandwich.

capecodtimes.com

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Posted Jul. 11, 2014 at 2:00 AM

Posted Jul. 11, 2014 at 2:00 AM

» Social News

Treasures that washed ashore this week;

flotsam we hope the next tide carries away:

Don't mess with oystermen

Cape and Islands District Attorney Michael O'Keefe made a big mistake when he intervened in a case involving a disgraced businessman who runs Joe's Lobster Mart in Sandwich.

O'Keefe should have kept far away from Joseph Vaudo, who pleaded guilty pleaded in Barnstable District Court in March to receiving stolen shellfish from contaminated water in Yarmouth. Vaudo also admitted to charges of misleading a police officer and failing to file the proper reports. He was fined $6,250 — a slap on the wrist.

Instead, O'Keefe wrote a letter to the state Department of Public Health, which intends to revoke Vaudo's license to sell fish. Vaudo is appealing the license revocation to the state Division of Administrative Law Appeals.

In his letter, the district attorney called the fine "the appropriate punishment in light of the lack of this business' or Mr. Vaudo's involvement with this court for any similar violations."

Cape oystermen say the letter gives the appearance that O'Keefe is advocating for Vaudo, and we agree.

"He (Vaudo) gave more money to politicians than he paid for the fine," said Ron Glantz, president of the Barnstable Association for Recreational Shellfish. Although Vaudo has never donated to O'Keefe's campaigns, since 2004 he has given a total of $8,400 to the district attorney's political allies and fellow Sandwich Republicans.

We won't speculate on why O'Keefe intervened in this case, but we think it is very odd.

Not so fast in Iraq

The entire Massachusetts delegation of the U.S. House of Representatives will sign an open letter that urges a congressional vote before any further military action is taken in Iraq.

The White House has said that the president will consult with Congress, but President Obama doesn't need its permission to fight terrorism. For example, he hasn't needed its permission to use drones to kill terrorists.

Whether the original invasion of Iraq was a mistake or not, we hope by now that elected officials, career diplomats, advisers and strategists have learned that factions in an ancient land think of patience and revenge in terms of generations, not election cycles.

Let's hope the letter circulating in the House prompts the Senate to follow suit and the president to take a longer view.

Iraq has been too bloody for too long. There should be long and serious consideration before Americans contribute to it, with either their bullets or their bodies.

Matching skills with jobs

A recent survey by UMass-Dartmouth of 1,350 Massachusetts manufacturers found that:

90 percent of firms are willing and able to provide additional training to workers with the right attitude and basic skills;

79 percent have the resources they require to train new production workers;

Most manufacturers have never worked with key public institutions, including local comprehensive high schools (73 percent), community colleges (69 percent), four-year universities (76 percent), and workforce investment boards (83 percent);

That's the key result: Institutions training workers aren't communicating with the manufacturers. Despite an unemployment rate that is now below 6 percent in Massachusetts, there is still room for jobs and workers to match up.

Here on the Cape, the community college has done an excellent job of working with private industry to match job-training skills with employers' needs.